I've asked this a lot but......

rugbyleaguesmate

As you know I have recently installed Solar panels and have turned a little strange with my new obsession!

I have generated 816 kw of electricity since the 26th September and my direct debit yesterday for electricity was reduced from £54 a month to £10. FIT account setup with 1st reading to be taken on Boxing day

Pvgis suggests we will generate 6120kw per year, clearly ahead of that at the moment.

Really aware that I continue to generate more electricity more than we use.

I keep reading the forums and I am convinced that we should use the excess to power something but really want to play at it without too much spend.

I see oil filled radiators as a possible solution, which ones should I choose? Which divert unit do people use. Is there something else I could power?

I don't have a water tank (combi boiler).

So for approx £250 what could I get?

Thank you

ajbell

I have an iboost which has 2 outputs, 1 goes to my immersion and the 2nd goes to a 13a fused socket which I plug in 1 or 2 oil filled radiators.
Any oil filled radiators will do but with the size of your system you need 1.5 - 3 kWh radiators or you could go for storage heaters.
I am looking for some other use for the excess in the summer.

rugbyleaguesmate

Thank you very keen on air conditioning.......Just googling iboost and storage heaters.

Have under floor heating in one of my bathrooms so maybe a possibility to feed this.

ajbell

Batteries would be nice but not viable at the moment.

pinnks

I have the immerSUN, which has 3 outputs. They went under in June but have been bought by another firm and the monitoring system has been back online and stable for a few months now, so assume they are OK.

You can power any resistive load - immersion, radiator, underfloor, toast, kettle, etc etc - but be careful with electronic timers etc. They may not cope with the varying supply. Cheap and cheerful on/off switching is best.

If you search on iboost and immerSUN on here you'll find loads to amuse you for hours...

Cardew

rugbyleaguesmate wrote: »

As you know I have recently installed Solar panels and have turned a little strange with my new obsession!

Don't worry about your obsession - you are in good company in this forum;)

As you have gas for heating, don't forget that to recoup the £250, for an Immersun type device, your savings calculations for any heating should be based on the price of gas(taking into account boiler efficiency).

Also surely it is only a matter of time before smart metering will stop the stupidity of paying for an assumed 50% export, when you can theoretically export nothing. Indeed it may then be a saving to be paid for 'actual' export rather than use it in house for heating.

tunnel

Cardew wrote: »

Also surely it is only a matter of time before smart metering will stop the stupidity of paying for an assumed 50% export, when you can theoretically export nothing.

Can't see smart meters catching on with the solar brigade if that was the case, not when they can't be forced to have them.

EricMears

Cardew wrote: »

Indeed it may then be a saving to be paid for 'actual' export rather than use it in house for heating.

Were my actual export figures available, I'd be receiving the princely sum of 4.2p/kWh (whilst paying around 3 times that for imports).

Martyn1981

EricMears wrote: »

Were my actual export figures available, I'd be receiving the princely sum of 4.2p/kWh (whilst paying around 3 times that for imports).

Quick check here and I get paid 3.48p but on 50% deemed rather than the actual 70%, so actually about 2.5p/kWh.

Still can't get a smart meter, yet, and have been told by EDF that even when I do, they won't use it for export payments anyway .... shame!

Cardew

EricMears wrote: »

Were my actual export figures available, I'd be receiving the princely sum of 4.2p/kWh (whilst paying around 3 times that for imports).

The OP has a gas central heating with a combi - so no hot water tank.

He specifically referred to diverting electricity for heating:

I see oil filled radiators as a possible solution, which ones should I choose?

I specifically referred to calculations to pay for an immersun using diverted electricity for heating:

As you have gas for heating, don't forget that to recoup the £250, for an Immersun type device, your savings calculations for any heating should be based on the price of gas(taking into account boiler efficiency).

Now what part of that do you not understand?

ajbell

9 kwh generated today and none exported.